Russian Communists Pay Tribute To Lenin

Moscow's Red Square, where Lenin's mausoleum stands (file photo) (AFP)
6 November 2005 -- About 2,000 people have laid red carnations at the Kremlin tomb of Vladimir Lenin on the eve of a former holiday marking the Bolshevik Revolution.

The crowd, led by Communist Party chief Gennadii Zyuganov, streamed across Red Square to pay tribute to the Bolshevikleader, whose embalmed body is still kept on display in a mausoleum just outside the Kremlin.

The 7th of November will be an official working day this year for the first time in decades. President Vladimir Putin signed a law late last year canceling the holiday that used to commemorate the 1917 revolution.

It has been replaced by a new national holiday, People's Unity Day, on 4 November.